Volke and Tanith
by whiskeycharliehotel
Summary: Tanith, the stern Deputy Commander of the Begnion Holy Guard, finds an unlikely friend in Volke, a mysterious assassin hired by Bastian.
1. Chapter 1

It was a few hours after Reyson had performed the Galdr of Rebirth on Renning. Though she had felt as if she could fall asleep to Reyson's song, Tanith was now battling insomnia, turning over in her cot every few seconds. Finally, she left her tent and headed towards the campfire for some peace. As she approached the dwindling flame, she spotted the silhouette of a man already occupying a space around the fire. As she drew closer, she realized he was Volke, the assassin Bastian had hired earlier. Volke had heard her coming, but only looked up when she was a few yards away. She was a woman who, despite her ferocious reputation, was slightly built. She was dressed in a white robe with a black cloak tightly hugging her. Her short black hair gave her a tomboyish appearance that, Volke could speculate, only added to her reputation. He was barely able to spot a white bandana that lay hidden underneath her hair. Her bare feet treaded lightly over the mat of thorns and thistles that covered the forest floor. Though in good shape, she lacked the more womanly qualities of her Pegasus knight allies, leaving Volke with some sympathy for Makalov, who had once drunkenly addressed her as "sir". She carried a slim but beautifully ornate sword sheathed in a silver and gold inlay scabbard. Tanith lay the sword on her lap as she sat a few feet from Volke, who was still wrapped in his battle garments.

"Can't sleep?" he asked.

"Yeah," Tanith stopped, but decided it was best to give an explanation. "I'm just worried about Sanaki. The last time I left her side…"

Tanith let Volke fill in the rest. They sat in silence for a few minutes, during which Tanith began to regret having come. She was just about to leave when Volke spoke again.

"Well, she's a decent fighter isn't she? And she's got Sigrun with her."

"I still just feel uncomfortable leaving Her Majesty's side."

"I guess you're just doing your job well," Volke said after a long pause. He pulled his shemagh down, revealing his nose and mouth, which lay in stoic meditation on his face. "You think you're going to stay in the Holy Guard after all this?" he continued.

"Of course. I don't know what else I would want to do."

"Yeah, I guess a little bit of the same here."

Tanith caught a quick glance at his face, trying to pry some emotion from his still face. Failing to find it, she fell backwards and gazed at the stars with her head supported by her interlocked hands.

"What about when you get older? What would you want to do then?" she asked.

"I hadn't really thought about, but I don't think I'm going to make it to that old. What about you? You can't be in the Holy Guard forever."

"Well, afterwards we get a good size pension and retirement pay, and we can continue to live on base for free."

Volke lay down facing her. Tanith briefly glanced in his direction and spotted a brief glimpse of a half-smile.

"That must be nice," he said "So you must be pretty much set for life."

"Yeah, it's a good deal."

Tanith lay for a moment next to Volke. In only a few minutes she felt more comfortable around him than around most people in the army. Suddenly, she thought of an idea.

"You know, I'm sure Sanaki would hire you as a spy. Once you're too old, you would get slightly less than what the Holy Guard gets, but it's still a good deal, and the pay's probably better than what you're getting now."

"Yeah, well, thanks. I'll think about."

Knowing she had failed to persuade Volke to work for Sanaki, Tanith got up, said, "I think it's about time I get some sleep," turned around, and promptly tripped over a branch and fell flat on her face. Volke couldn't help but burst into laughter as Tanith scrambled to get back on her feet.

"Hey," she said, "you don't tell anyone about this."

"Well jeez, looks like miss frosty's losing her cool here."

"Yeah and you're supposed to be some sort of stone cold killer? Give me a break."

Volke thought for a second, and came up with a deal.

"How about this," he said with a sly grin, "I don't tell anybody about your little accident, and you don't tell anybody about me laughing, okay?"

"One condition," she said, smiling, "when we're alone, I can see you laugh and you can see me screw up, but it only stays between us."

"Sounds good," Volke chuckled, "You know what Tanith, I might actually go work for Sanaki if I get to hang out with you. You're pretty cool, you know that?"

"Of course I known that," Tanith spoke over her shoulder as she retreated to her tent.


	2. Chapter 2

There had been little chance for Tanith to speak to Volke again for the rest of the march to the tower. The quickening pace of the marches and the exhaustion afterwards often led Tanith straight to bed, though not before chastising those who complained about their sore feet or wings. Even upon arriving at the tower, it was not until their army had dispatched the Disciples of Order roaming the streets of Sienne could Tanith get an opportunity to talk to Volke again.

Once the other armies had arrived, a modest feast was held in order to revitalize the weary troops for the journey into the tower itself. The buffet style meal had been placed on several tables, by which a line of hungry troops had formed. Tanith went through the line, making sure to pick only the healthiest fruits and vegetables, not even considering touching the meat or desserts available. Exiting the line, she noticed Volke waiting near the back of the line. Tanith wandered around, pretending to search for a suitable place to eat her food. After a few minutes of this, she looked back at the line. Volke had just started on the first table. Tanith decided to wander over to Marcia, who was chatting with one of the Crimean Royal Knights. After five minutes of yelling, Marcia made an excuse about having to feed her Pegasus and ran off before Tanith had finished with her plethora of degrading insults. Glancing back at the line, Tanith saw that Volke was just finishing. She walked towards the tables as Volke started to head for whatever quiet place he could find.

"Hey," she whispered as she brushed past him, "you want to eat in my tent?"

"Sure." His whisper was barely audible. Tanith walked to her tent while Volke took a circuitous route to the same destination.

"Must be nice to have a tent," Volke said as he walked through the entrance. Tanith had already set up a small round table next to her cot.

"It's one of the perks of being a Holy Guard and having a Pegasus," she said, "You can sit down here, I don't bite," motioning towards the bed since Volke had remained standing awkwardly near the tent flap.

"Uh… thanks," he said, walking nervously towards the table and making sure to put several inches between him and Tanith as he sat down. He grabbed a piece of fried chicken and started to carefully eat it, making sure no crumbs fell onto anything but his plate.

"I'm guessing you don't do this a lot," Tanith said as she watched Volke eat. He waited until he had finished chewing to reply.

"No. I haven't really eaten with someone in a while."

"Why not?"

"It's not part of the job, getting friendly with your employer. Most of the time I don't even meet whoever's hiring me. Calil usually does the sweet talking and I do the job. That's why she gets a little bit of my payment."

"I didn't know that. So Calil actually helps you get jobs?"

"Yeah, I'd be broke without her," he said. Tanith felt a twinge of emotion she could not quite recognize, and a sudden urge to change the subject.

"So are you going inside the tower?" she asked him. Earlier, Micaiah had posted a list of those who would accompany Ike and her within the Tower of Guidance.

"No. There was only one good knife and she wanted to take her boyfriend along."

"Sothe?"

"Yeah, that kid. She also took my best knife and gave it to him. Micaiah kind of pisses me off."

"Yeah, me too," Tanith said. "She's letting Sanaki go in there without either me or Sigrun."

"Yeah, sometimes I just don't know what goes on in that woman's head."

"Same. She's also taking that useless King Pelleas."

"I know, I overheard her talking about him being an Est or something."

"Whatever that means," Tanith laughed.

"I have no clue," Volke said, laughing with her.

They stopped talking while they ate their food. Volke listened to the conversations going on outside as he worked through his plate. Most were dull, boring conversations, but some he thought were rather interesting. Heather and Zihark arguing over who would get to feed Ilyana, Rhys and Laura discussing what to do with their churches once Ashera was defeated, and Ike and Soren complaining to each other about Micaiah. Once both of their plates had been finished, Tanith offered to carry them to the designated bin for dirty dishes while Volke waited in the tent. When she returned, they continued talking.

"Hey, Tanith," Volke said, "when we were passing by Lake Semper I saw something that looked like a university. Do you know what that was?"

"Oh," she said, "that's probably the Begnion Naval Academy."

"That's where Begnion sailors go?"

"Not all of them. It's a four year college and its free, but it's hard to get into and you have to serve at least four years as an officer in either the Begnion Navy or the Central Army."

"So does Begnion have a bunch of military academies?"

"Other than that one there's the Begnion Military Academy and the Cavalry Academy."

"Did you go to one, or did you enlist?"

"I went to the Cavalry Academy, class of 641. It's pretty much taking regular courses but also learning cavalry tactics and combat."

Volke's eyes were wide open and his ears were completely tuned to Tanith's voice. For the first time, she saw Volke not as a stone cold assassin, but as a curious student. Feeling the need to teach him more about the Begnion military, she continued.

"The Cavalry Academy's also where Holy Guard and Senate Dracoknight officers come from. Anyone can apply, but obviously the women go into the Holy Guard and the men go into the Dracoknights. There's pretty rigorous training, and most people wash out."

"Damn, that's impressive that you went through all that," Volke said, smiling at her.

"Well…" Blood started to rush to her cheeks, but before either Tanith or Volke could react, a loud yell and the clash of metal on metal was heard. A small, green haired archer ran into the tent.

"Hey! The Disciples of Order are attack...Uhmmm…" Rolf was rather shocked to find Volke in Tanith's tent, but the menacing glares he received stopped whatever question he had been about to ask.

"The, uh, Disciples of Order are, um… attacking… and, uh, yeah," he said before darting out the tent. Tanith and Volke exchanged stony glances before grabbing their weapons and joining the battle.


	3. Chapter 3

Volke had been sleeping peacefully among the branches of a tree near the edge of the encampment. He had tied himself to the trunk, with his combat belt, holding all his knives, daggers, and vulneraries, fastened around a nearby limb should he need to access it quickly. His hand had moved to the belt before his eyes had even opened as soon as he heard the sound of armor. He quickly untied himself and dropped silently to the ground. Listening to the sound, he concluded that it was a lone soldier, possibly an assassin. There was no need to wake any of the others up. Volke's feet barely hit the ground as he ran towards the source of the sound. He reached the assassin, the moonless night making it impossible for anything but the silhouette to be seen. Volke crept up and had his knife on the assassin's throat when he heard the figure's voice. Immediately recognizing it, he backed away.

"Tanith," Volke said, "what are you doing here in your armor?"

"Goddess, Volke," she replied, "I thought you were one of the Disciples."

"Tanith," he repeated, "why the hell are you up right now? You should be getting some sleep."

"I'm sorry Volke, it's just…"

"You're worried about Sanaki?"

"Volke, we haven't heard a thing from them and it's been three days. I was just going to go inside to make sure she's okay."

"You could get killed in there."

"I don't care, Volke. This is my job as a Holy Guard. There's nothing you can do to stop me."

Volke sighed. He knew that once Tanith had made up her mind, there was nothing in Tellius that could stop her. As a professional, he knew that he should let Tanith go on ahead, but another part of him demanded that he find another course of action.

"Okay, Tanith, but I'm not going to let you go alone. You know you won't be able to get past the guards without me anyways," he said.

"Whatever," she said after a brief pause, "Just don't get in my way."

"I'm more worried about that cow you ride."

"Don't worry," Tanith said with a muffled laugh, "I'm going on foot for this one."

The Tower of Guidance was surrounded by a tall wall, with only one entrance, that Edward and Leonardo had been assigned to guard that night. Volke led Tanith to an oak near the wall. He climbed the tree and leapt, barely catching the top of the wall. He dropped a rope down, motioning to Tanith to tie it around her waist. After tying the rope around his waist as well, Volke slowly walked down over the barricade, with Tanith following. Once she had reached the top, Volke motioned her to jump down, where he would catch her. Years of riding a Pegasus had made Tanith immune to any fear of heights, and she jumped off without hesitation. For a second, as she lay in Volke's arms, the two looked into the other's eyes. Tanith felt as if her heart had skipped a beat as Volke helped her get on her feet. Volke, too, found it hard to slow down his quickening heart rate. The two avoided looking too closely at the other until they had entered the first floor of the tower.

"Definitely signs of a battle here," Volke said, examining the wasteland before him.

"But there's hardly any blood, and all the armor…" Tanith said, inspecting the shells, "it's all empty, like they were fighting ghosts."

"What about them?" Volke said, pointing to the bodies of what looked like two priests. Tanith examined the bodies.

"That's senator Lekain, and this one's senator Hetzel," she said.

"I remember that bastard, Lekain. Let's get going, if you want to catch up to the others."

Tanith and Volke proceeded to begin climbing up the stairs. They noticed something strange about the battlefield as they entered the second floor. One half of the battlefield was riddled with bodies. Unlike the first floor, none of the armor was empty, and blood covered the floor. The casualties looked to all be Begnion soldiers. Tanith and Volke stepped carefully among the bodies.

"I recognize this guy," Tanith said, reaching the body of what looked to be a high ranking officer. "This is Levail. He was Zelgius's second in command. I wonder why he would have fought us."

"How loyal was he to Zelgius?" Volke yelled from the other side of the room.

"He was extremely loyal to Zelgius. Why?"

"Because I think he was under Zelgius's orders."

"What are you talking about?"

"Come over here."

Tanith walked to where Volke was standing. She noticed that the bodies seemed to end abruptly at some invisible line, as if a barrier had separated the two halves of the room. Volke was standing over the only body on the other half of the room. From afar, Tanith had recognized him as the Black Knight. As she drew closer, however, she recognized the face of the man who had been the cornerstone of the Begnion military.

"Zelgius?" she said.

"It looks that way. I should have known. Everything fits, his speech, his swordplay, strength. How did I not see it?"

Tanith could only stare at Zelgius's face. He looked serene, almost happy, in death. She could only wonder what would have caused him to side with Ashera. Suddenly, they heard a tremendous roar that shook the tower.

"That would be Dheginsea," said Volke.

"Then what are we waiting for?"

Tanith and Volke drew their weapons and charged up the stairs.


End file.
